Well it isn't exactly hard is it, you did it the day I came on here and before someone starts (I know you wouldn't Ruth) I have some well founded personal reasons for both leaving in the first place and then returning as I am

Back on topic and not read back to see if we discovered the origin of Toyce, but I was contacted by a former pupil of Epsom College (1948-52), who has investigated further and has discovered that it might have come from Winchester College where Evening Preparation Work was called Toytime: http://www.winchestercollege.org/notion ... r-glossary. Perhaps each cubicle is a ‘toy’ and ‘toys’ is the plural.
The word was brought to Epsom from Winchester College by the Rev Canon Barton, Headmaster in 1914. Over the years it took on the spelling of toyce.
Too late to ask whether Barnes Wallis cribbed the name, and indeed the idea.

Glad we've got back on topic here.
My understanding - and certainly a tale circulating at CH during the late 1960s/early 70s - was that toyces were designed for CH dayrooms by Barnes Wallis, based on the 'swing wing' principle.
I'm unclear how true that is, but it's possible.
According to Wikipedia, Barnes Wallis didn't come up with the idea for the swing wing, but 'did much pioneering engineering work to make the swing-wing concept functional'.
What I do know is that Barnes Wallis saw the toyce.
I recall him visiting CH and Peele A (his old house) in the early 1970s.
During his visit, he came in to the dayroom. He was shown the toyces, how they were hinged on to the walls and how they could be swung back to give more space in the dayroom. I remember he was interested to see how they operated, and was impressed.
Hardly surprising. They were a clever design, and gave CH pupils their first taste of independence at the school, especially when supplemented with a travel rug thrown over a piece of string, effectively cutting you off from the dayroom and creating your own workspace. Add a record player - I remember many people favoured headphones to ensure they weren't too intrusive to the rest of the dayroom - and it was a terrific stepping stone between the dayroom and your own study.
So it's possible that there was a connection between Barnes Wallis and these clever, legless desks on large hinges. He certainly saw them in action.
But it still doesn't answer why they were called toyces...